I would wait until the end of the week for this, but there's just so much going on right now with 4 of the 5 major Chicago sports teams, and I think all of this needs to be addressed now, because this has been such an exciting week. We have a couple of huge Blackhawks signings, what looks like what will be the Bulls moving forward with their offseason plans finally, and in both the Cubs and White Sox camps there's great All Star news and some more as well.
I'll start with the Blackhawks. Toews and Kane are now signed. Like I had been saying, there was nothing to freak out about, the deal was going to get done, and it did get done. The deals make both players tied with each other for being the highest paid player in the NHL. They'll remain in Chicago for another 9 seasons, keeping them with the Blackhawks through their primes. This, to me, is the best part of the deals. It's rare to see two players this good remain on the same team for such a long time. If neither is traded before the end of their deals, it will be 16 years together. That's just crazy!
The Bulls don't have as much certainty going on right now, but the Carmelo roller coaster is going for a wild ride right now. Less than 24 hours ago it was reported that Carmelo was going to stay with the Knicks, then his agent came out and said that he was still reviewing his options. Stephen A Smith, whose credibility can be questioned, as he's known some things and been right on them well before everyone else before, and he's been plain wrong many times before too, did say that he had heard that Carmelo still was seriously considering the Bulls due to the situation he would go to there. Meanwhile, if Carmelo does indeed stick with New York, like I still think he will, then the Bulls are getting ready to move on. They've got Pau Gasol in their sights (I'm not huge on this one, but I think he can still provide some quality play and be a mentor to.....), and they are also supposedly close to a deal to bring Nikola Mirotic over. Also on the Mirotic front was word from Fran Fraschilla, who said that Nikola Mirotic would have been a top 4 pick in this past year's draft. Considering the talent at the top of the draft, that's some huge praise, so let your expectations go nuts!
So on to the White Sox. Although it shouldn't have even come to this, Chris Sale was voted in to the 2014 All Star game. I don't think there's much question as to Sale being an All Star this year. The only issue was all of the time he spent hurt, but he still played plenty to deserve to be an All Star. He'll join Alexei Ramirez and Jose Abreu in Minnesota. Abreu is an obvious pick, and Ramirez, despite slowing down a bit after a searing hot start, still deserves to be there as well.
The Cubs also will have a trio of All Stars at the game, although one of them won't be able to play. Jeff Samardzija was selected to the team despite being traded, but will still represent the NL, he just won't be able to play since he's now in the AL. Starlin Castro has been one of the best offensive shortstops in the league this year, last I checked only Troy Tulowitzki had a higher OPS among shortstops. His defense has also vastly improved. He's back to making some of those spectacular plays he was making the first couple of years, but he's also doing it with many fewer errors. He's got 11 errors still (anyone who really knows the game knows that 11 is still a bit high at this point for a shortstop, but only a bit, shortstops get a ton of chances and often make a lot of errors, even the best), and has the best fielding percentage of his career right now at .971. Lastly, Anthony Rizzo won the final vote for the All Star game, beating out Justin Morneau (good story candidate). Honestly, I thought his biggest competition was going to be from Anthony Rendon. Either way, I'm starting to think that Rizzo is the most underrated player in baseball right now, because there's a lot of people that are upset by this. However, most Cubs fans know that Rizzo not only had the highest OPS of the group, he also was the best fielder of the group, making him the best player of the group and most deserving. It's great to see all three of those guys make it to the All Star game, as all deserve to be there, just a shame that Samardzija can't pitch in it. I will say that with the the way both teams are playing, it's crazy to see 6 All Stars from Chicago's baseball teams. Still, it's an individual reward, so before anyone thinks I'm using that to say that team record should be taken into consideration, it should not, it's an individual thing, 100%.
Moving along, other exciting Cubs news is that Darwin Barney's family will be welcoming a new addition, which is awesome, and I want to make sure to say that first, because the bottom line is that what happens on the field is just a game and trivial compared to things like the birth of a child. Anyway, that birth gave Cubs fans an opportunity to see someone who may be a part of the future, Arismendy Alcantara. Alcantara was a part of 3 Cubs debuts this week from AAA. The first was Tsuyoshi Wada, then Alcantara last night, and then Kyle Hendricks today. Wada pitched very well, giving up 1 unearned run in 5 innings in his debut during the second half of a double header. Alcantara had a rough start offensively, going 0-4 in his debut with 2 strikeouts, but he seemed to adjust well this afternoon, going 4-5 with 2 singles, a double, and a triple. He scored 2 runs as well, the first being the game tying run, and the second being the run that wound up being the winning run. On top of that, he also drove in the first 3 of those runs. The bottom line is that offensively he showed two completely different worlds, but if a bad game means having this good of a game on occasion, I'll take it. Defensively he looked very good in both games (although I had to wait to watch a recording of today's game). The bottom line is that he's looking like he could wind up being a good player. He was initially only supposed to be up for 2 days, but he played so well that the Cubs are going to keep him up for the time being. As for Hendricks, he was absolutely brutal his first inning, but he settled down and gave up 1 run over his last 5 innings (gave up 3 in the first). While the first inning was rough, the rest of the game wound up being very good for him. He'll probably remain with the Cubs for the rest of the season.
More excitement came when the dugouts emptied in today's game. Going back to the previous couple of games, Anthony Rizzo had hit a home run in each of those two games, then was greeted in his first at bat today by getting plunked. So in the 9th, Nate Schierholtz was batting and Chapman threw two straight pitches way up and in, so far that the catcher didn't even catch either one. Pretty obvious that there was something intentional going on there. Anyway, Rizzo defended Schierholtz by yelling at him from the dugout, then instead of just finishing the inning and going back to the dugout like he should have, Chapman decided to do a little glove flip in the direction of the Cubs dugout. Anyway, bottom of the 9th, the Reds dugout is whining like a bunch of crybabies towards Rizzo and yelling things in his way, Rizzo finally turns to them and gives them a "Come at me", you know, because if they were actual men they would have done that instead of yelling from the safety of the dugout. Anyway, Reds dugout empties, Cubs dugout follows, and Rizzo was ready to throw down. Reds players didn't look so eager, looks like they just wanted to chirp and not face any consequences. Anyway, cheers to Rizzo for standing up for his teammate and becoming an All Star while his team pulled out a much needed win today. He didn't have a hit, but he had a very good day. Oh, and yes, the bias is pretty obvious in the way I described the events, but at the same time, I guarantee not a single word of it was untrue.
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